Nickel miners expressed opposition to a government’s plan to ban the export of nickel ore and warned that it would harm the mining industry.
The Department of Trade and Industry earlier proposed to restrict nickel ore exports to institutionalize mineral ore processing and add value to mineral exports.
Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual earlier said the agency was studying a ban or duties on export of nickel ore to encourage the development of local nickel processing which fetches higher value. The government plans to follow the lead of Indonesia which also restricted exports of nickel ore to China and other countries.
Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc. president Dante Bravo said the move would hurt not only nickel miners but also all mining companies operating in the Philippines.
“Killing the industry will not incentivize investments in value added processing. You promote investments in value added processing by promoting mining investments first—with a stable and predictable policy. If we cannot show protection of mining investments, how can we show protection of investments in value added processing,” he said.
Imposing duties on nickel ore exports would also severely harm companies mining nickel especially as the industry is already heavily taxed, said Bravo, who is also the head of the Philippine Nickel Industry Association.
The twin proposals will only serve as added burden to the mining industry that is yet to recover from slump over years of mining ban which was lifted only in December 2021, according to the group.
The government reinstated mining as a major part of economic recovery, and taxing more than what the sector could absorb is an antithesis to what the government purportedly aims to achieve, the miners said.
Bravo said more taxes and the proposed ban on nickel ore shipment would disincentivize investors and pull them away from putting in more investments into the local mining industry.
He said that while FNI had plans to add value to nickel ores by means of processing, the company was focused on exploration and nickel resource banking.
“We are continuously studying different technologies that can be economically viable in the Philippines,” he said.
The nickel firm plans to expand its shipment from 6.5 million wet metric tons in 2022 to 8 million wet MT in the next two years.
“We are bullish about the nickel industry given China’s recovery post-pandemic, as well as the fast growing EV [electric vehicle] sector using battery grade nickel materials,” Bravo said.
The Philippines is the second-largest nickel ore producer, globally. The country has 34 operating nickel mines, with only two nickel processing plants partly owned by Nickel Asia.